Sharing & Rental Business Models for Battery Products in the Emerging Markets with Husqvarna Group

Husqvarna Group has designed, produced and sold products and services for over three centuries in more than 100+ countries. Our business strategy drive us towards providing an access to our products rather than ownership and towards low-carbon solutions. The following challenge is provided by our Husqvarna Division, the world’s leading producer of forest and garden products and services.

In the transition to low-carbon solutions, we experience that the introduction of battery powered outdoor products in emerging markets would significantly contribute to reducing local emissions. The adoption of battery products is hindered by the initial higher cost of the battery pack and customers’ unfamiliarity with the advantage of our battery portfolio has compared to petrol-based outdoor power products. By providing a sharing solution for the battery pack, and possibly also for the gardening tool itself, we aim to accelerate the introduction and adoption of battery products. We also aim to achieve a better utilization rate for the tools and extend the use of the product to its full lifetime. The Husqvarna Division has ongoing initiatives for sharing solutions where Tools for you is one example. Now we are looking for a solution that fits especially in the emerging markets with the aim to accelerate the introduction of battery products.

This opportuinty is part of Husqvarna Group’s Sustainovate Open. Read more about Sustainovate Open and Husqvarna Group’s Sustainability targets here.

We are looking for a solution suitable for the emerging markets with a focus on either Asia or Sub-Saharan Africa. Based on our internal research, there is a growing interest in sharing economy and rental business models in major Asian and Sub-Saharan African countries, which has the potential to significantly decrease carbon emissions in the respective areas. We are now looking for partners with innovative solutions to help us tap into this potential with our outdoor power products.

The solution should attract both residential and professional users, both existing- and new customers of the Husqvarna Division. Our requirements for a solution include a user-friendly experience, a cost-effective system for maintenance, ability to handle multiple languages, potential for a scale up to cover more markets, and a solid support structure behind the concept (helpdesk, customer service, troubleshooting). With this challenge we are searching for an innovative partner with capabilities for market activation and monetization in our target markets.

In addition, a digital solution for monitoring the usage of the tools and their environmental impact is a valuable part of the solution. Another important aspect is the way to drive activation of the solution in the marketplace: the required (digital) engagement that needs to be created with potential customers will require creativity and a change from more traditional ways of going to market. In short, we are looking for the key elements to run this business model in full from activation to execution, day to day setup, including options for hardware and software solutions.